Kilkenny!

So this weekend was our first real trip outside of Dublin. A group of us booked a hostel in Kilkenny for 2 nights since we heard the city was a great place to visit. We had a great time and everything went pretty smoothly. Friday morning we took a 2 hour train ride there. Kilkenny is south of Dublin, about halfway to Cork. We got off the train and went to find our hostel called Lanigans- this was my first hostel experience, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. It ended up that our hostel was in a great location, but wasn't so great in condition. The lady who checked us in looked completely miserable with her life, and it is up for debate if she really speaks English. There were 7 of us in a room that was pretty crammed, and the doors didnt exactly lock when you shut them- so on a couple of occasions strange men who were also staying in the hostel came in to say hello. Anyways, it was fine.

The first touristy thing we did was go to Kilkenny castel, which was awesome. Here's a picture:

After the castle, we walked around the town a little more and got ready to go out. The nightlife was pretty wild. The boys in the room next to us were from Waterford, which is in the south of Ireland. We went to 2 pubs listening to live music and basically going crazy. I never expected a band of men in a random pub in Kilkenny to play Bad Romance by Lady Gaga, but it was great. There was a promotion for Bulmers (an alcoholic cider) going on at one bar, which everyone was happy about. It was fun to experience a nightlife with the majority of the people being Irish, since in Dublin there are often a lot of tourists at the bars we have gone to so far.

Saturday was more walking around, and pretty low key. The town is really nice and has over 250 pubs, so we were ready for round 2 on saturday night. We had a delicious meal of Tapas for dinner, then hung out a little before heading out for a pub crawl. I'm pretty sure we walked into about 8 pubs that night. Each had a different feel, especially the one we ended up enjoying the most. We went to a pub called the Field both nights, but saturday night it was PACKED. I felt like I was in a moshpit. The men were pretty creepy that night, but everyone is very willing to buy you a pint. Irish men also have a strange habit of picking us girls up (literally, in the air) when they greet us. It makes for good stories. This place was so packed that even the miserable hostel lady was there. We saw her dancing by herself in a corner, which was hilarious.

This morning we got up, checked out of the hostel, and went to breakfast. We had some delicious bagels and coffee then got on the train to come home.

Overall, it was a tiring but fun weekend. I'll have more pictures to come in the next few days. Tomorrow we start real classes, and we head to the west this weekend!